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With a capacity of 34 MWp, the Zuyderzon Almere solar park in the Dutch province of Flevoland is one of the largest in the country and again demonstrates the Dutch are in the fast lane to the energy transition.

Last year, German project planner and EPC Pfalzsolar prevailed against numerous international competitors in a call for tenders and won the contract for the large-scale project. The tender was issued by HVC, one of the largest non-commercial waste management companies in the Netherlands, in cooperation with Sunwatt, a project developer for sustainable energy assets. The four-month construction period begins next Thursday.

“This project is, in many ways, a special one for us,” said Lars Josten, managing director at Pfalzsolar. “It is not only our largest project to date but also another milestone in our cooperation with HVC – a partner whose commitment to renewable energies is unparalleled for us.”

In the last few months, Pfalzsolar has built three solar parks with a total capacity of 9 MWp on disused landfills for HVC. In recent years, HVC has invested heavily in renewable energy. In addition to its own PV plants, the company operates wind farms and geothermal projects.

The Almere solar park is being built in an industrial area. Pfalzsolar chose an east-west mounting system to make optimum use of the area’s potential. Due to the soil conditions, a high ramming depth was required. In addition, the German EPC had to take the permanent drainage of the soil into account in the plant design, as the area is four meters below sea level.

“The technical requirements for a project of this size are not unusual but require a high level of expertise in project planning and the construction of ground-mounted solar parks,” said Max Huber, head of project development at Pfalzsolar. Maarten Meijer, who accompanies the project on behalf of Zuyderzon Almere, said: “Pfalzsolar’s offer to include local suppliers and [its] many years of expertise were an important decision criterion for us, in addition to economic factors. We greatly appreciate the cooperation with the Pfalzsolar team and look forward to the construction period that lies ahead of us.”

From its commissioning, the Almere solar park will produce around 30 million kWh of environmentally friendly solar electricity per year. For every kilowatt hour fed into the grid, operator Zuyderzon Almere – a project company formed by HVC & Sunwatt – will receive a feed-in-tariff determined in accordance with the Dutch SDE+ subsidy program.